Charles Burnett on His Soaring Romance ‘The Annihilation of Fish,’ Finally Released After 25 Years in Distribution Hell
variety.comJames Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave star as aging neighbors turned tender lovers in “The Annihilation of Fish,” newly restored in 4K from Kino Lorber and Milestone Films.
Playing New York now before expanding to Los Angeles and select cities, the film not only finds two terrific actors — three, including Margot Kidder — working at the top of their games, but also sees them united with director Charles Burnett.
Once limited to laurels within the independent film community, Burnett’s name has been canonized in recent years, after the re-premiere of his UCLA thesis film “Killer of Sheep” — a funny, haunting and altogether ineffable slice of neorealism set in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood.
So how, then, did his fifth feature, “The Annihilation of Fish,” go largely unseen for more than two decades? According to the twisting, years-long saga recounted in the press notes for this restoration, a negative Variety review out of the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999 was enough to spook distributors from taking on Burnett’s feature.
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